1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an ornamental wheel device and more specifically to such a wheel device which includes an ring portion having a plurality of clips circumferentially spaced around one side thereof including extended toothed members adapted for biting engagement of the wheel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ornamental wheel covers and wheel trim rings have long been used in motor vehicles to decorate the wheels. It is essential that these wheel devices be designed to be removably secured to the wheel while having reliable retention means which prevent its accidental removal under environmental extremities and during substantial vibration throughout operation of the wheel. It is also desirable to produce the wheel devices as inexpensively as possible and to insure that the manufacturing process does not interfere with the aesthetic design of the wheel device.
Some early embodiments of these wheel covers and trim rings included a backing ring which extended around the entire circumference of the wheel device. The backing ring included a number of biting members which made biting contact with the wheel to retain the wheel device thereon. These devices required a number of manufacturing steps to produce and a significant amount of material.
An improved wheel trim device as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,400 includes integral means for providing the biting members but, again, requires a significant number of manufacturing steps including crimping the extended end of the backing clips to the ornamental ring portion. This introduces the liklihood of some marring or damaging of the ornamental surface of the trim device.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,860,294 and 3,999,268 disclose still another improvement which utilize separate clips which are dispersed circumferentially around the wheel device. However, the design also requires some crimping at the peripheral edges of the ring portion which might interfere with the aesthetic appearance of the wheel device as the clips are captured within the flanges by crimping. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,149 also discloses a plurality of clips which are secured to a wheel device. Although one end of the clip is secured by another means, the design still appears to require that the other end of the clip be crimped to the periphery of the ring portion.
Accordingly, each of these patents requires some crimping steps to insure that the clips are properly retained within the ring portion of the wheel device and this additional operation has the added disadvantage of potentially causing damage to the ornamental surface of the wheel device.